recycle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   use again after processing

   We must recycle the cardboard boxes

2. 2
   verb

   To break down and reuse component materials.

   Both paper and plastic can be recycled.

3. 3
   verb

   To reuse as a whole.

   Jokes are recycled so frequently, it’s as if comedy writing was eating a hole in the ozone layer: If the audience had a nickel for every time a character on one side of the frame says something could never happen as it simultaneously happens on the other side of the frame, they’d have enough to pay the surcharge for the movie’s badly implemented 3-D.

4. 4
   verb

   To collect or place in a bin for recycling.

   Most cans, bottles, and jars need to be rinsed, so recycle while you are doing dishes.

5. 5
   verb

   To be recycled.

   Sulfur recycles in the sulfur cycle.

6. 6
   verb

   To put (a person) through a course of training again.

   Recruits cannot fail this portion of their training and become a Marine. Anyone who fails may be “recycled” through training up to three more times to try again, but will be sent home if success in this program is not achieved.

7. 7
   noun

   An act of recycling.

   First, there will be little reaction in the settler so that the concentrations of soluble constituents in the recycle stream are the same as those in the bioreactor. Because all soluble concentrations are the same, the recycle of soluble constituents around the system has no impact on system performance.

8. 8
   verb

   cause to repeat a cycle

Etymology

From re- + cycle.